Taxation

There is no direct taxation imposed on Caymanians and Cayman Island companies. The government receives the majority of its income from indirect taxation. A 20% duty is levied against imported goods. Some items are exempted like baby formula, books and cameras. Duty on automobiles depends on the class and make of the model; duty can reach up to 40% for expensive models. Financial institutions that operate in the islands are charged a flat licensing fee by the government. A 10% government tax is placed on all tourist accommodations in addition to the small fee each tourist pays upon getting on the island.

Health care

The Cayman Islands have a modern health care system. There are two hospitals in George Town, the government run George Town Hospital and the smaller, private Chrissie Tomlinson Memorial Hospital. Additionally, Faith Hospital is an eighteen-bed facility on Cayman Brac. The Government maintains a satellite clinic on Little Cayman.

Health insurance is handled by private insurers and a government-run company (CINICO). There is no universal health coverage as in the UK. All employers are required under Law to provide health insurance for their employees (although the employee may be required to contribute 50% of the premium). Full time employees also contribute U.S. $ 10 every month to the “Indigent Fund, which helps cover care for the unemployed, elderly, and other groups in need of monetary assistance.

Currently the islands lack facilities for cardiac catheterisation, though many feel the population is large enough to support the procedure. Various attempts to establish a cath lab in George Town Hospital have stalled. The Cayman Islands lacked an MRI after one was destroyed during Hurricane Ivan, but in July 2007 a new unit was installed at the Chrissie Tomlinson Memorial Hospital.

For divers and others in need of Hyperbaric oxygen therapy, there is a two-person recompression chamber at George Town Hospital on Grand Cayman, run by Cayman Hyperbaric Services. The same organization has built a Hyperbaric unit at Faith Hospital in Cayman Brac.

Economy

The Cayman Islands are also the “Switzerland of the Caribbean ‘, and because here are the most banks, including the largest, with branches on the ground; favors this status here by the prevailing tax exemption, the capital of George Town on the fifth of the World Financial Center was created. In addition, Asian companies such as Broad Intelligence International Pharmaceutical represented.

Earlier main exports were turtles and mussels.

Geography

The Cayman Islands are located in the western Caribbean Sea. They are the peaks of a massive underwater ridge, known as the Cayman Trench, standing 8,000 feet (2,400 m) from the sea floor, which barely exceeds the surface. The islands lie in the centre of the Caribbean south of Cuba and West of Jamaica. They are situated about 400 miles (650 km) south of Miami, 180 miles (300 km) south of Cuba, and 195 miles (315 km) northwest of Jamaica. Grand Cayman is by far the biggest, with an area of 76 square miles (197 km²). The two “Sister Islands” of Cayman Brac and Little Cayman are located about 80 miles (130 km) east of Grand Cayman and have areas of 14 square miles (36 km²) and 10 square miles (25.9 km²) respectively.

All three islands were formed by large coral heads covering submerged ice age peaks of western extensions of the Cuban Sierra Maestra range and are mostly flat. One notable exception to this is The Bluff on Cayman Brac’s eastern part, which rises to 140 feet (42.6 m) above sea level, the highest point on the island.

History

The Cayman Islands were first sighted by European eyes when Christopher Columbus, on 10 May 1503, encountered them during his disastrous fourth and final voyage to the New World. He named them Las Tortugas after the numerous sea turtles there. The first recorded English visitor to the islands was Sir Francis Drake, who landed there in 1586 and named them the Cayman Islands after the Neo-Taino nations term (caiman) for crocodile (Zayas, 1914).

The first recorded permanent inhabitant of the Cayman Islands, Isaac Bodden, was born on Grand Cayman around 1700. He was the grandson of the original settler named Bodden who was probably one of Oliver Cromwell’s soldiers at the taking of Jamaica in 1655.

The islands, along with nearby Jamaica, were captured, then ceded to England in 1670 under the Treaty of Madrid. They were governed as a single colony with Jamaica until 1962 when they became a separate British Overseas Territory and Jamaica became an independent Commonwealth realm.

The largely unprotected at sea level island of Grand Cayman was hit by Hurricane Ivan on 11-12 September 2004, which destroyed many buildings and damaged 70% of them. Power, water and communications were all disrupted in some areas for months as Ivan was the worst hurricane to hit the islands in 86 years. However, Grand Cayman forced a major rebuilding process and within two years its infrastructure was nearly returned to pre-Ivan levels. The Cayman Islands have the dubious honour of having experienced the most hurricane strikes in history. Due to the proximity of the islands, more hurricane and tropical systems have affected the Cayman Islands than any other region in the Atlantic basin (brushed or hit every 2.23 years).^[1] The Cayman Islands enjoy a low global standard of living (which is a high standard for the Caribbean region) fully dependent upon tourism and tax-haven dependent banking.

When to Go

Mid-December to mid-April (winter) is the peak tourist season, when hotel rates are substantially higher and beaches and lodgings more crowded. As such, summer is a great time to come. The weather’s warm, accommodation cheaper (down by as much as 40%) and the crowds thinner. There is more rain in summer, but it tends to come in downpours that clear as quickly as they arrive. Nervous Nellies will rightly tell you that this is hurricane season, but the chances that you’ll get swept up in the big one are slim. Even so, it’s best to keep an eye on the weather reports in the days before your arrival.

George Town

George Town, Grand Cayman, is the capital of the Cayman Islands, in the British West Indies. The town has a population of 20,626 (1999 estimates).

George Town is the heart of the Cayman Islands financial industry, with over 600 banks located there. Most of these are small one room operations, some having no physical location on the island at all. It also has cruise ship facilities, a cargo dock and several shopping plazas.

Located in George Town are the offices of Government. These include: The Legislative Assembly, the Court Houses and the Government Administration Building. The Government Administration Building houses the offices of the Leader of Government Business and other members of Cabinet, the Chief Secretary and his staff and other elected officials and Civil Servants.

Cayman Islands

The Cayman Islands are a British overseas territory located in the western Caribbean Sea, comprising the islands of Grand Cayman, Cayman Brac, and Little Cayman. It is an offshore financial centre and one of the leading tourist scuba diving destinations in the world.